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40 Days of Gluten Free School Lunches

August 29, 2013 by Jackie Ritz 62 Comments

It’s about that time again! School is starting, or has started for a lot of you. Sending healthy gluten free school lunches with your child is COMPLETELY possible. Let me show you 40 photos of my kid’s healthy gluten free school lunches that I have collected! I guess I should disclose that my family is not 100% Paleo…you will see a few things that fall in our 20% non-Paleo, like dairy, Nut Thins, and some rice. However we do try to stay completely gluten-free.  I hope you get some ideas and enjoy packing healthy gluten-free school lunches for your kids!

Like the lunchbox? Get it here!

lunch1
Farm fresh egg, spinach and tomato salad with evoo/balsamic dressing, sauerkraut, and a Aidell’s chicken sausage
Broccoli, olives, apples sprinkled with cinnamon dipped in raw honey, leftover crockpot chicken, and apricots
Broccoli, olives, apples sprinkled with cinnamon dipped in raw honey, leftover crockpot chicken, and apricots
Tangerine, carrots, ham roll ups, Kerrygold cheese, banana chips and raw honey, and a apricot leather heart!
Tangerine, carrots, ham roll ups, Kerrygold cheese, banana chips and raw honey, and a apricot leather heart!
Lacto-Paleo lunch: carrots w/evoo and vinegar dip, grapes, cottage cheese with blueberries, ham roll ups, and 2 chocolate covered almonds <2
Lacto-Paleo lunch: carrots w/evoo and vinegar dip, grapes, cottage cheese with blueberries, ham roll ups, and 2 chocolate covered almonds<2
lunch5
Grapes and carrots, plantain chips, apples w/cinnemon, and a homemade (grain free) chicken nugget
lunch6
Grapes, blueberries, fruit rope, “monster eggs” (Brussel sprouts), turkey and mustard, and 2 choc covered almonds!
lunch7
Boiled egg, olives, raspberries, grapes, trail bar, and Fauxtato salad
lunch8
Apples, Nut Thins, cherry fruit leather, Pistacchios, and boiled shrimp w/ketchup! Someone is gonna be so happy to see shrimp ♥
lunch9
Paleo Pumpkin Muffin, tangerine, Nori(seaweed) chips, PaleoKit*, and dark chocolate! PaleoKit: amzn.to/1173LBr

 

lunch10
Lunch on a stick (and Arianna’s surprise caught on camera): olives, hormone free hot dog, and olives!
lunch11
Fruit leather, strawberries, leftover chicken to dip in mustard, cucumbers, and Enjoy Life choc chips
lunch12
Strawberries, turkey and cheese pinwheels, olives and tomatoes, applesauce, and Enjoy Life choc chips!
lunch13
Cheese, strawberries, cantaloupe, olives, leftover pork, and choc chips
lunch16
Nut & fruit mix, carrots w/oil & vinegar dip, apples, PBJ on Food for Life almond bread,  and dark chocolate chips
lunch17
Blueberries, carrots w/PB dip, Nut Thins, Cherry Tomatoes, Apricot fruit leather hearts, and a Sandwich on a Stick
lunch18
Trail mix, olives and tomatoes, plantain chips, turkey roll ups, and dark chocolate dessert!
lunch19
Carrots and natural PB, ham and cheese rollups, olives and grape tomatoes, apples and chocolate 🙂
lunch20
Genoa salami, olives with oil and vinegar dip, blueberry stuffed strawberries, grapes, cottage cheese, and cashew Lara bar
lunch21
Summer sausage, farm egg, carrots and natural PB, clementine, natural applesauce, and 2 pieces of dk chocolate for a treat!
lunch25
Boiled farm egg, cherry tomatoes, pepperoni and Applegate Hot dog, Ants on a Log, cottage cheese with grapes, and fruit leather stars!
lunch26
Carrot chips, blueberries, grapes, sandwich roll ups, cottage cheese and a fruit stick
lunch27
Special Easter lunch
lunch28
Meatball, Nuthins, Medjool dates, pistachios, blueberries, apples, applesauce w/cinnamon on top and some fruit leather stars for a treat!
lunch29
Blueberry/coconut protein ball, pecans, cantaloupe, salami & ham roll, carrots, Icelandic yogurt, and fruit rope for dessert!
lunch31
Farm egg, cherry tomatoes, carrots and almond butter, Nut Thins, dates, ham and roast beef roll ups, and cookie for desert!
lunch32
Turkey, ham, pep pinwheel, cherry tomatoes, braised green beans, blueberry Icelandic yogurt, oranges, and 2 fruit leather hearts for a treat!
lunch33
Marinated roasted beets, chicken stuffed ham rolls, veggie straws, pears and carrots, and chocolate chips for a treat!
lunch34
Edamame, turkey rolls, olives & strawberries, pineapple, apples, and buckeye for a treat!
lunch35
Cherry tomatoes with dip, carrots and celery, Nut Thins, raisins, pistachios, olives and hot dog on a stick, and a cookie for a treat!
lunch36
Ham roll-ups, Veggie Sticks, walnuts, raisins, Nut Thins, cherry tomatoes, and kiwi!
lunch37
Cherry tomatoes, olives, oil and vinegar dip, Nut Thins, pistachios, kiwi, pepperoni, chicken rolls, and a cookie for dessert!
lunch38
Orange slices, olives, boiled egg, Nut Thins & pepperoni, Ants on a Log, and mini chocolate chips for dessert!
lunch39
Blueberries, clementines, edamame, tuna salad inside Nut Thins, homemade Greek yogurt topped with maple syrup and raisins and surrounded by walnuts, and a mini Hershey bar for dessert!
lunch40
Rolled ham, cherry tomatoes with evoo and balsamic dip, dill pickles, raisins, and cottage cheese (Primal)
real 1
Olives, blueberries, banana, fruit leather hearts and AB on an Ezekiel Tortilla
real2
Fresh berries, boiled farm egg, olives, fruit leather & raisins, pistacchios, and a PB rice cake smiley face 🙂

 

realfood4
Simple lunch: cantaloupe, carrots, and roasted turkey leg
realfood5
Italian Mobster: turkey roll ups, olives, green beans and peas
realfood6
Mommy/daughter lunch date 🙂 Olives, Pistachios, steak, tomatoes, cucumbers, oil and vinegar dip, and Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips.

realfood7

 Foods and Items I frequently used:

  • Fruit Leather 
  • Fruit Rope
  • Lara Bar
  • Nut Thins
  • Almond Butter
  • Veggie Sticks
  • Like the lunchbox I use? You can get it here. 
  • Can’t afford the PlanetBox, try these instead.

On days you want to send HOT leftovers, I recommend this Thermos to keep it hot till lunchtime!

 

Shared on: Tasty Traditions, Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Thank Your Body, Natural Family Today, Old Fashioned Friday, Girl Meets Nourishment, and Holistic Squid

Filed Under: Paleo Education, Paleo Toddler Tagged With: gluten free lunch ideas, gluten free school lunches, grain free lunch ideas, healthy school lunches, lunch bots, paleo school lunches, planetbox, what to feed paleo kids

PlanetBox Lunchbox Review & PlanetBox GIVEAWAY!!!

March 2, 2013 by Jackie Ritz

…and the winner is……….. Lisa D. Lisa you have been notified!!! Congrats and thank you everyone for entering!!!

 

I can’t say enough good things about the PlanetBox lunchbox. And if you follow me on Facebook, then you see all the healthy lunches I post using our PlanetBox lunchboxes. They are an eco-friendly way of packing healthy lunches for your kids…and even for yourself! The PlanetBox is made of stainless steel which doesn’t smell, doesn’t stain, and doesn’t have any toxic chemicals in it. It’s so easy to clean and it’s also dishwasher safe. The little compartments are the perfect size for little hands to reach in and grab something healthy.

I love making my daughter’s lunches so much that I created a Pinterest page that has pictures of all the different, healthy lunches that I make. My daughter has The Rover PlanetBox. It comes with a large, stainless steel bowl and a smaller bowl. Here’s a few of my daughter’s lunches I have made with The Rover PlanetBox:

See the big dipper bowl and the little dipper bowl? They don't leak AT ALL!
See the big dipper bowl and the little dipper bowl? They don’t leak AT ALL!

559788_488976064499259_1767911346_n

Not too long ago, PlanetBox announced that they had created a larger lunchbox for those with bigger appetites and larger serving sizes. The PlanetBox Launch system is 30% bigger than the Rover and has a tall, stainless steel dipper for dips and sauces, a magnet set for the outside, a glass Satellite Dish for re-heating foods, as well as a really neat carry bag.

PlanetBox gave me this Launch System to use and review and, let me tell you, I am in LOVE! I have been so caught up in making food fun for my daughter, I didn’t know making food fun for me would be so exciting! If you work and pack a lunch, have older kids who eat a little bit more, or pack a lunch for the hubby…this is the lunchbox for you. PlanetBox, also, recently launched a Plan-It-Box, which is a web-based app meal planner.  This meal planner is awesome and it lets you share your lunches with other users and get ideas to plan healthy lunches for your kids!

Let me show you a few things I love about this new Launch PlanetBox…

It comes in a cute carry bag that you can swing across your body.
It comes in a cute carry bag that you can swing across your body.
The outside magnets come off and can be swapped out for other styles! Kids love this!
The outside magnets come off and can be swapped out for other styles! Kids love this!
_MG_4828
The Launch comes with a big dipper for salad dressings, nut butters, and sauces and a glass container that can be taken out and heated up!

 

See! This is the coolest thing...the glass container comes out to reheat leftovers!
See! This is the coolest thing…the glass container comes out to reheat leftovers!

And here’s The Launch in action…

Lots of room!
Lots of room!
Fits my healthy, Paleo lunches!
Fits my healthy, Paleo lunches!

Pretty cool, huh? Well, if you like The Launch, then I have GREAT news for you!!!!!! PlanetBox has offered to giveaway ONE complete Launch System to a lucky winner!!!!!!!!!

Here’s a few ways to enter to win a FREE LAUNCH SYSTEM (open to US residents ONLY):

1. Go “like” PlanetBox on Facebook and tell them, “The Paleo Mama sent you“. Leave a comment ON THIS BLOG POST saying that you did.

2. Go “like” The Paleo Mama on Facebook. Leave a SEPARATE comment saying you did (or do already).

3. Subscribe to The Paleo Mama’s blog. Leave a separate comment saying you did (or do already).

4. Share this post on Twitter or Facebook! You can share it once a day till the giveaway ends. Come back and say you shared it (each day).

That’s it! You have the chance of leaving 4 SEPARATE comments with bonus entries everyday you share this.

(Giveaway ends: Saturday, March 9, 2013 at 9pm. I will use a WordPress plugin, “And the winner is” to choose a comment at random. Good luck!)

 

Filed Under: Giveaways Tagged With: bento box, dairy free, giveaway, gluten-free, healthy lunches, lunchbox, paleo, planetbox

Paleo Kids: What to feed them?

September 14, 2012 by Jackie Ritz 9 Comments

My new friend over at Living Crunchy invited me to write a guest blog post on how to feed real, clean food to kids. Today, I’m going to share with you the post that I wrote and I hope it can help you on your Paleo journey as a family!

As a mother of two Paleo kids  I understand this very common question. Kids love junk. They love candy. They love bread. They love anything that isn’t “healthy”…right?

If I was to tell you (and I’m not bragging here, I just am proving that feeding kids Paleo is possible) that my kids love veggies, boiled eggs, slices of avocado, bone stock, olives, and every kind of meat; would you believe me? They can down a steak faster than a grown-up, and nothing quenches their thirst like water. They don’t even know what cereal is. They thrive on what I eat, and that is meat, eggs, veggies, nuts, fruits, and healthy oils.

Yes, it can be done. When I hear mothers say that they can’t get their kids to eat anything but mac n’ cheese, hot dogs, chips, crackers and cereal, I wanna ask them, “Are they the ones doing the grocery shopping?” Seriously, who is buying it? If you don’t buy it, it won’t be there to tempt them, but mostly, tempt yourself to throw something easy at them that you KNOW that they will eat and won’t fight about.

Here are two ways to start the process of eating healthier:

1) ease into it. Slowly eliminate the junk foods in your house and start by buying healthy alternatives. Let your kids finish the cereal, let your husband finish his stash of chips, but don’t buy anymore. Or…

2) you go cold turkey. This is how I did it. I bagged up all my junk food, grains, cans of soup and fruits, and I donated them. My personality is all-or-nothing. So this just worked for me. I don’t overwhelmed easily some could handle this more intense transition. Some people, can’t do it this way. For example, the working mom may find it really difficult to make so many changes all at once.

Either way, you are making healthier choices for your family. I had to stop looking at food as a means to an end (hungry—> so satiate that hunger) and look at it as a way to heal my body, grow my children’s bodies, and energize my life.

My kids never get a separate dinner. If we are having bone broth soup, so are they. If we are having grilled veggies and grilled chicken legs, so are they. And let me tell you how adorable it is to see a baby tear apart a chicken leg with his little mouth!   Once you break YOUR bad habit of feeding them the easy food, you will see that raising Paleo kids is just as easy as raising non-Paleo kids.

I’ve had many Paleo mothers ask me what to send in their school lunch. For me, packing my daughters lunch for preschool has really made me tap into my creative side. I bought a Planetbox lunchbox, which is a bento-style stainless steel box, to help me be diverse and make the whole “lunch dilemma” more of a fun thing that me and Arianna do together in the mornings.

I try to make her lunches creative, colorful and tasty. She eats some dairy, like cottage cheese and Greek yogurt on occasion because she loves it. I try to always include something in her lunchbox that she loves. This keeps her happy and looking forward to seeing what I included. She loves roll-ups, which is simply deli-meat rolled up.

Sometimes I cut the roll-up in 5 sections and neatly place them in her box. Some other protein-rich foods I put in her box are, boiled eggs, slices of avocado (drenched in lemon juice), beef jerky, pistachios, shredded chicken, and leftover steak. Then I try to add one or two veggie items. This is usually sliced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, or carrot sticks.

Now, if you have a toddler, then you know that they love to dip. So, I include a little container of almond butter or olive oil/balsamic vinegar that she can dip her veggies in. I always try to add a healthy fat. Sometimes this is the olive oil/vinegar dip but other times it is olives, nuts or avocado. Then I give her a fruit. It’s whatever I have on hand. I throw other things in that she loves like fruit leather, dark chocolate for a treat, Nut Thins, or a Lara Bar. And that’s it! It takes me about 5 minutes to make her lunch in the morning.

I started a group on Pinterest called, “Arianna’s Lunches“. When I remember, I upload a picture of her lunch I made for that day.

The greatest lesson I have learned as a mother is that there are three things that we cannot FORCE upon our children: input (food), output (toilet), and sleep. In trying to “break” our kids and get them to conform to our will, we end up hurting the relationship even more. However, what we can do is give them options. Kids love to feel like they are in control too.

They are, indeed, little humans and have the same strong will that we have. Limit your food options to healthy choices and let them choose. Let them feel like they are choosing for themselves. Let them feel like they are in control of their own bodies. That’s the goal, right? To raise healthy children that will one day grow up and make healthy choices for themselves.

Great recipes from The Paleo Mama:

Fruit Gummy Snacks

Paleo Mac n’ Cheese

Baked Avocado-Coco Fries

 

Filed Under: My Recipes, Paleo Education, Paleo Toddler, Starting Paleo Tagged With: gluten-free, healthy lunches, paleo, planetbox

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Hi, I'm Jackie Ritz and welcome to The Paleo Mama! I'm a published author, certified herbalist, and voracious researcher of natural medicine and nutrition. I'm glad you're here and I hope you stick around for awhile!

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